It is known in the art that headrests, particularly on rear seats, or headrests attached to a rear bench seat in a motor vehicle can impede the fitting of a child-restraining system, for example a child seat. Insofar as the headrest is not removed for the fitting of the child seat in a case such as this, this can lead to improper use of the child seat in which correct positioning can no longer be guaranteed. In addition, it is generally accepted that headrests on the rear seats can restrict a driver's rear view significantly. For these reasons, headrests have been developed that can be turned down between an in-use position in which the headrest can provide support to the rear of the head of a passenger siting on the vehicle seat and in an out-of-use position in which it is swiveled in a direction in front of or behind a backrest of the vehicle seat, for example. Headrests of this kind known from the state of the art exhibit their own mechanism for this purpose with complex kinematics.
A headrest with a padded part is known from DE 100 38 813 A1, for example, which padded part is secured by means of carrying bars to a backrest of a vehicle seat and is mounted in a hinged manner about a swivel axis to the rear into a flat out-of-use position. The pivot axis is located within the padded part and engages there with guides running substantially parallel to the carrying bars in the padded part. A quite similar design of a headrest that can be turned down is disclosed in FR 2 962 949.
Furthermore, DE 36 15 857 A1 describes a headrest that is secured to a backrest by means of supporting bars that can be displaced in guides. The headrest can be turned down between an in-use position and an out-of-use position in which it does not restrict the view. The supporting bars are each divided by a joint which lies within the associated guide when the headrest is in the in-use position. When the headrest is out of use, it can be pulled out of the guides using the supporting bars until the joints are exposed. A turn-down headrest that is similar in principle is known from DE 197 39 798 A1.
Against this background, the problem addressed by the present invention is that of providing a headrest for a vehicle seat that is comfortable and secure and, in addition, provides a turn-down function between an in-use position and an out-of-use position using simple, effective and inexpensive means. Moreover, the headrest should be easy to operate and universally usable. In addition, a vehicle seat with a headrest is to be provided which likewise benefits from optimized operability and universal usability.